Spotlight Topics

These sessions will build off the classic panel discussion format by bringing together leading experts representing diverse or contrasting perspectives to debate on hot topics within the areas of cultural diversity and education. Each session will include a lively discussion with the audience.

The four sessions are planned as follows:

I. "Role of Religion, Religiosity, and Identity in Schools"

Fenella Fleischmann, Utrecht University, Netherlands, Orhan Ağırdağ, Leuven University, Belgium, and Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Religion has become a central point in discussions of migrant and refugee adaptation. The experts on this panel will discuss the role of religiosity, religious affiliation, and religious practice in the educational success of youth in schools.

II. "Innovative Methods for Studying Diversity in Educational and Community Contexts"

Jamis Jia He, German Institute for International Pedagogical Research, Germany. Tendai Chitewere, San Francisco State University, USA, and Loes Keijsers, Tilburg University, Netherlands. The panelists’ expertise ranges from ethnographic, geospatial coding to intensive longitudinal ecological momentary assessment to analysis of multi-level, multi-national, large scale datasets. The panelists will discuss how their methods and methodologies could be implemented in studies to understand students in culturally diverse schools embedded in culturally diverse communities.

III. "Disaggregating the 'Migrant' Label: What Issues are Relevant for all Migrants versus Specific Groups?"

Gülseli Baysu, Kadir University, Turkey, Peter Titzmann, University of Hannover, Germany, and Alaina Brenick, University of Connecticut, USA. Oftentimes in educational research “migration status” is used as a categorical variable. The experts on this panel will discuss when and whether it is important to disaggregate “migrants” as a group and what issues relevant for school adjustment are migrant-group specific (e.g., by particular heritage country or status such as refugee, undocumented) or relevant for all migrant children.

IV. "Effective Interventions for Students, Teachers, and Schools to Promote Positive School Adjustment"

Adriana Umaña Taylor, Harvard University, USA, Piet Van Avermaet, University of Ghent, Belgium, and Sheree Bennett, &Lisa Küchenhoff, International Rescue Committee, Berlin, Germany. In this panel, leading scholars and practitioners who focus on different levels of intervention—with students, teachers, and school-wide—will discuss effective interventions that can improve student adjustment, teacher development, and school conditions for culturally diverse schools and communities.

Invited symposia

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Schools: Challenges and Opportunities

Individual paper sessions, symposia, and posters

Conference participants will present and discuss their research related to cultural diversity, migration, and education. For more detailed information regarding individual presenters, please download the PDF version of the conference program available at the top of this page.

Please click here for the program of our previous conference, CDME 2016, which took place in Potsdam from July 7th to 9th, 2016.